June 10, 2006

Yikes... bloggers. They took off their jammies and put on their shorts. They've come out of the house and walk among us. Black socks go with shorts, right, moonbeambushhater?

I'm looking at the paper NYT, and the photo is twice as wide. What are you missing? To the left of the white-legged ones is a slouching young woman with scraggly hair. There's a sign on the wall behind her -- something about "swing states" -- and the photo is framed so that we see the word "swing" is next to her head. To the right, we see a banner -- "Mark Warner/President '08" -- and standing above it is a very tubby man in short sleeves and wrinkled pants. To his right is a guy with a beard and hair growing past his shoulders.

Okay, let's read the text:

They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair.

The horror! It's bad enough Iowa gets so much power....

"It's 2006, and I think we have arrived," Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos and the man for whom the conference was named, announced after being greeted with the kind of reception Elvis, or at least Wayne Newton to a more traditional Las Vegas audience, might have received had he walked into the dowdy ballroom at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.

The ceremony and self-celebration notwithstanding, the actual extent of the blogging community's power is still unclear. For one thing, it was hard to find a single Republican in the crowd here, though organizers insisted that a few had registered. For another, as the presidential campaign of Howard Dean demonstrated in 2004, the excitement and energy of the Web does not necessarily translate into winning at the polls.

"I do believe that each day, they have more impact," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, who will deliver the keynote speech to the group on Saturday night. "Now how far that will go, I don't think we know that yet."

But, Mr. Reid added: "One of the reasons I so admire them is they have the ability to spread the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years. We could never have won the battle to stop privatization of Social Security without them."

Hey, that's a good tag line for a blog: Spreading the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years.

Yeah, all you politicians: deal with this entity!

One Democrat who declined to attend: Hillary Clinton. What did Kos say when asked if she was popular with his crowd? "Oh my God, no way!"

Mark Warner was there though. And Howard Dean. Tom Vilsack. Wesley Clark "was spotted on Thursday night looking somewhat out of place as he roamed the halls in a pin-striped suit before heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to hold his own reception for bloggers." The poor man!

Ha, ha... they must all kneel to the lefty bloggers!

Maureen Dowd was there too. If you've got TimesSelect, you can check out her column today. A taste:

I ... wad[ed] through a sea of Kossacks, who were sitting on the floor in the hall with their laptops or at tables where they blogged, BlackBerried, texted and cellphoned — sometimes contacting someone only a few feet away. They were paler and more earnest than your typical Vegas visitors, but the mood was like a masquerade. This was the first time many of the bloggers had met, and they delighted in discovering whether their online companions were, as one woman told me, male, female, black, white, old, young or "in a wheelchair."...

As I wandered around workshops, I began to wonder if the outsiders just wanted to get in. One was devoted to training bloggers, who had heretofore not given much thought to grooming and glossy presentation, on how to be TV pundits and avoid the stereotype of nutty radical kids.

Mr. Moulitsas said he had a media coach who taught him how to stand, dress, speak, breathe and even get up from his chair.

How to dress? First, get out of the pajamas. Okay, now, about those socks....

Why would you start off your blog entry with such sexist comments? So, if I say, "Althouse is ugly and therefore you should not pay any attention to her" you would think that is OK. You perpetuate the sexist and craziness of the right wing.

Now, why do you worry about things you cannot control when something you CAN control is sitting right in your lap and you are doing nothing about it. University of Wisconsin just announce a 6.9% tuition hike! What a disgrace! Can you imagine if you were a private business? Does it matter? The ONLY reason people can continue to attend your university is because they get a lot of money from the Government.

Why don't universities deal with higher costs the way everyone else does: Find efficiencies, take away ridiculous benefits, innovate etc. No, you just pass it on to the "consumer" who turns right around and gets it from the Government.

You are, therefore, working for a Government welfare receiving agency at the same time you say the Democrats, who support your welfare program, are bad.

I'd read that one of the concerns expressed at the convention was the lack of humor among the Left. But I think they haven't figured out that the emphasis should be on telling a joke not being the butt of one.

You're picking on them because you think they wear jammies? Sorry, that is the right wing bloggers that you had the dick fight with, not the Kossacks. Kossacks by and large have a median age of about 45 are gainfully employed and are highly educated.

And you know that.

Mark Warner was there though. And Howard Dean. Tom Vilsack. Wesley Clark "was spotted on Thursday night looking somewhat out of place as he roamed the halls in a pin-striped suit before heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to hold his own reception for bloggers." The poor man!

Ha, ha... they must all kneel to the lefty bloggers!

I think if you actually researched the issue, that you would find that General Clark loves bloggers (and bloggers love him). Ann, don't you love it when you see him on Fox? Don't you love his strategy of appearing on Fox so that the rank and file Republicans get regularly exposed to a lefty who is not the at all like the stereotypes you are regularly fed?

Don't you appreciate the way he communicates? Speaking simply and clearly and not afraid to take a stand? Why not contrast that in your series of hit pieces against Hillary Clinton instead of wondering all the time why bloggers do not like her?

Finally, you are upset that Markos had a media coach? I would think you would applaud that as a sign that this Berkelyite was serious. But again, PJ's? Markos, a lawyer from the Army, was more apt to dress his in BDUs, a suit, or shorts than PJs.

Did you ever speak to anyone about how you should dress, or talk when you are being interviewed on TV?

I don't know what happens at the Madison J School, but at Berkeley, the Graduate School of Journalism aims to turn out students capable of reporting in print, TV, radio, and online. And as part of that students are taught how to dress and how to speak and have resources so that the students can have (shocker) practice interviews and see how they come across.

Why is it so terrible for a group of bloggers that wish to become more effective in their communication to have a workshop on how to communicate including how to dress?

Seems like a very admirable suggestion.

Again, the typical Althouse column of smears couched in a manner that lets you claim you were critiquing a third party entirely.

Don't you have more productive ways to spend your mornings? Me, I'm going to the gym. Thanks for asking.

We could never have won the battle to stop privatization of Social Security without them.

Let's triumph in the fact that we're keeping poor people from making any money!

This is an issue that everyone made fun of Bush for endorsing, but I think it would have gone a good way towards reducing that gap between rich and poor that the democrats are always saying they want to eliminate.

I agree with Ann--the NYT piece was exceptionally snarky and deprecating. Sonmehow I think the Grey Lady may be a bit concerned that the Kossacks may very well wield more influence over the Democratic primary system as currently structured than the NYT--and if you read the Kos page from time to time, there is absolutely no love lost between them and the NYT--

Perhaps this is a battle for the heart and soul of the left wing of the Democratic party, and the times can only resort to snark.

The Times article did seem pretty condescending. It is also unfair to single out the Kos event for having a freak factor (black socks with shorts, etc.). I've been to more than a few political events for Republicans and Democrats, and I can say with confidence that unless there is a high minimum donation fee for attendance and the event is located at some place that has a sense of formality, the freak factor will be there no matter what side of the fence you are on. As is the case with so many things, placing the event at a location people feel they need to dress up for and charging a high cover charge tends to keep out the riff-raff. Also, the NYT observation is at odds with one account I read from a right-wing blogger (at Hot Air, if I remember correctly), in which he said the crowd was quite clean-cut and professional-looking, much to his chagrin.

The one big problem I have with the Kossacks is this: "And a well-known columnist from a major metropolitan newspaper — this one — was repeatedly stopped by bloggers requesting that she pose for photos with them, as they expressed admiration for her work. (That would be Maureen Dowd.)"

Anyone who thinks Maureen Dowd is admirable is clueless. Her work is just snark and eye-rolling, and I've rarely, if ever, seen anything insightful in her work. Plus, while she may be a liberal politically, she's never shown any loyalty or respect to people who actually do the real heavy lifting when it comes to political action. I'll take Paul Krugman (or for that matter, Matt Yglesias or Josh Marshall) over her any day of the week.

Awesome. Looks like the world's biggest doofus convention. I remember when the left was cool, about 40 years ago.Pogo, you reminded me of the underwear gnomes on South Park:Step 1: black socksStep 2: ??Step 3: Victory!!

Having looked at the entire picture, thanks Tom, I think your description is purposefully inaccurate.

Very tubby guy? Not that tubby and with long sleeves not short sleeves.

Slouching scraggly hair chick that swings? An attractive woman that has been standing behind a booth with completely reasonable hair and who is leaning on a toy slot machine.

You should check your visual comprehension skills, you sluffed this one and the GWB caricature: two in a row? Perhaps you should be checked for diabetes?

It is equally intriguing the signs you did not read out for us. The sign that is the FOCUS of both pictures is on the tote bag: "YearlyKos Convention 2006 Uniting the Netroots" worn just below a T-Shirt that says: "Dumb, Dumber, Dubya".

You have an odd eye for a popular culture critic.

Now, I don't want to defend Adam Nagourney by any means, and so I will suggest you take a look at what he posted about his article on his personal blog.

Hate to break it to you, Ann, but the old computer geeks who drool over you while they take breaks from their work look no better than Mr. Black Socks Guy. In fact, that's the very kind of guy who thinks you a babe, hun.

Oh, and there were two pics in the times. So why not link to the other one? Maybe cuz the woman has rich, real hair.

I know you can't stand those liberal bloggers getting all that attention.

The Times and Dowd are much less simpathetic than the bloggers. At least the kossaks believe something, though it's wrong. The times guys are jealous of their position, and resort to insults that exist normaly, only in a fashion mag.

Ann, "Lurketto" used to comment here as "Reasonator". While it could be another, even more loathsome personality of quxxo's as some have suggested (quxxo made a post on its blog highlighting the "brilliance" of a reasonator comment, and they often seem to interact and congratulate one another), it's also possible that "Reasonator" and "Lurketto" are the ex-Thersites guy in deeper cover. The threat (however impotent) of "despoiling" your professional reputation sounds like the sort of thing an embarrassed little community college elf would try to do to someone (especially a woman) who he felt threatened by.

I'm actually here at YearlyKos. What's impressive to me is the professionalism and maturity of the whole enterprise; this is neither a long-hairs-who-started-with-McGovern or Angry TwentySomethings rally.

I'm not seeing a lot of anger here. I'm seeing organization, and policy debates, and optimism.

Also, the key speakers today are Howard Dean, Mark Warner and Harry Reid -- and 2/3 of that is not exactly the left wing of the party.

It's amusing (amusing as in terribly sad) when a Constitutional Law Professor in love with American Idol and who herself blogs to become famous on TV will mock people that want to influence the world for the better for their fashion sense and their willingness to attend media workshops. I can't figure out what your students make of you.

ConfirmThem played an instrumental role in the prevention a three-decade national catastrophe by forcing the collapse of the Miers nomination.

Daily Kos has generated an incredible amount of hot air, and has endorsed various candidates, most of whom have failed, and those who have succeeded did so without Kos' help.

The "power" of blogs. Really, do we care what this buch of malcontents are up to? They might do well to contemplate that if this government really was as authoritarian as they seem to think it is, gathering together in one place probably isn't the best of ideas. Ironically enough,the mere existence of yearly Kos proves how totally unnecessary and paranoid they are.

Quxxo,It really cuts you up that nobody listens to you, doesn't it? After all, all you try to do is "to influence the world for the better", and yet try, try, try as you might, it's as if you just can't get through to people. If only they'd listen to you! If only they'd pay attention to your ideas,they'd see how right you are! If only! Why do Americans have tobe so stupid; why won't they listen to you?

Well, you're a semi-famous law professor, you could interview him for your blog. I mean, you we're pretty good at detecting the flip-flop in Kerry from the truthseeking, liberty loving stalwart we know as Dumbya, so I would think you could look into Clark's eyes and get a sense of his soul.

Or you could visit Securing America and sign up on his mailing list and read his blog and his speeches and his writings and his books (Amazon lists 11 books for him) and see what he has to say for himself. If you put yourself on his mailing list, you will see in what he mails you, what his concerns are, who he endorses, what actions he recommends, and how he writes.

I have to say, I am on Kerry's, Clinton's, and Clark's email list, and Clark gives good email. It is really insightful, not just into progressive thought, but into the man himself.

Ann, I know it's slightly offtopic, but I hope you are planning on blogging the earth tones of Al Gore in an Inconvenient Truth. Come on, the guy is a nerd, failed in the world's ultimate reality show, and wooden. I think he lies too, just like Kerry. Inconvenient Truth is showing starting next Friday at the Marcus Theatres Westgate Cinemas Madison 340 Westgate Cinemas Mall Madison, WI 53711

That appears to be about 5.2 miles from campus, easy biking.

Come on, we need a fashion statement blog post about Al, American Idol! Most of all, we need to stop Al before he joins forces with General Clark into bringing America down!

Simon, the big problem with the kos people and supposedly "liberal" trolls at this site is that, even though they claim (or try to appear) to have altruistic motives and ideals, they present them, again and again, with a sarcastic sneer. Why should we believe that there is anything good about a philosophy when the people who most vocally advocate it are such nasty, mean-spirited turds?

If you read more carefully, I am asking you to blog the earth tones of Al Gore the stiff wooden liar. So you could defy the power of Cuze by watching the movie and blogging about its substance and not the fashion statements within.

Nevertheless, I am amused how pixels on a page can change your behavior.

We may ask what is relevant, but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar, the demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. So don't listen, remember that, do not listen.

The Crazed One quoted Ann Althouse (out of context): "What research would let me know what Wesley Clark actually loves?"

His dumb (And I mean really dumb. "Is this guy retarded?" dumb.) response: "Well, you're a semi-famous law professor, you could interview him for your blog."

Yeah, Ann. Use you semi-fame to interview Wesley Clark, a man who will never be president. If you interviewed Wesley Clark, you would know what Wesley Clark loves because he would tell you and then you would know. Wesley Clark loves what all good politicians love: You and All Good Things.

Quxxo, my manic little friend, forget what people say. People say all kinds of stuff.

One can say, "I'm good, I'm good, I'm good." But if one acts like a weird, sick asshole - like obsessively hating a blogger, actually dedicating a blog to the hatred of the blogger, having few links at the blog that are not about hating the blogger, then one is a weird, sick asshole.

I actually think it was sporting of Clark and the others to visit with The Kidz. Pointless, but sporting.

The Once and Future Queen chose not to. Which do you think was the smarter move?

johnny nucleo rightly notes that Anne's self-righteous stalker says more with his words and behavior than he intends. I, for one, am all for it. Let the crazed unveil themselves. Like most of the "fervent" believers from both sides of the political demarcation line, the more urgently they try to persuade, the less convincing they become. What is most often deduced is that the individual is psychologically compromised.

I've heard many a tale about the banality of the Althouse blog, and I had to come over and see it, just once, for myself. I have to say, it didn't disappoint.

All partisanship aside, what's going on in Vegas is a meeting of folks engaged in the political process, a bit of a rarity in this country. They're having discussions and forums not just about media presentation, but also about the substantive issues facing our nation. Kos, along with many of the other liberal bloggers, are working to build a political movement because we're dissatisfied with the entire political system, not just the complete failure of American conservatism. Like other failed rightwing ideologies, it will one day be consigned to the dustbin of history and laughed about by future political scholars. What people like Kos are trying to do is build a viable political movement that appeals to a broad base of Americans and gets people interested in politics again.

But never mind that. I mean, who cares about the direction of the country when there's overweight people wearing silly clothes to mock. Much better to have that kind of serious conservative discourse, instead of those "crazy" and "angry" lefties...

"All partisanship aside, what's going on in Vegas is a meeting of folks engaged in the political process, a bit of a rarity in this country. They're having discussions and forums not just about media presentation, but also about the substantive issues facing our nation. Kos, along with many of the other liberal bloggers, are working to build a political movement because we're dissatisfied with the entire political system, not just the complete failure of American conservatism. Like other failed rightwing ideologies, it will one day be consigned to the dustbin of history and laughed about by future political scholars. What people like Kos are trying to do is build a viable political movement that appeals to a broad base of Americans and gets people interested in politics again."

It's funny that that slab of cant is preceeded by the words "all partisanship aside". Yes! All partisanship aside, aside from the COMPLETE FAILURE OF AMERICAN CONSERVATISM and that nice image of DUSTBINS (who says "dustbin"?) and LAUGHING POLITICAL SCHOLARS (since when do serious scholars laugh at ideas?) Yawn.

The problem with your kind of liberal is rather the same problem that certain religious missionaries have: you're so damned earnest. You're "Up With People" in BUSH IS DUMB t-shirts. You've got BIG IDEAS! You're learning how to put on 5000 watt smiles and to grease yourselves up and try and wriggle your aimless, angry, failed philosophies past the "dumb" American public yet again. What does the "broad base" think of a man whose first response to 4 murdered Americans in Fallujah was "Screw them"? Is that the kind of person whose opinion should matter to the "broad base"? Is that what you're peddling? Are people as "dissatisfied" as you and yours perpetually try to tell them they are?

The problem isn't that people aren't hearing your message, or that you need to improve your presentation. The problem is that people hear your message and reject it, again and again, no matter how many times you call them deluded and stupid and naive.

This may all sound like another bit of partisanship to you (after all, you want EVERYTHING to be political), but I assure you that I find most political discourse, whether it comes from someone with a beard and a beret or from someone with a bow tie and a starched collar, equally distasteful. You don't get this blog, or the mindset of the people who enjoy coming here. We don't respect politics, we don't respect your earnestness or feigned earnestness. We hate phonies, of any stripe. You want to play politics like the big boys and girls? Fine, then get used to having your black socks/shorts combos and white dreadlocks and tempeh-stained "Dumb, dumber, Dubya" shirts mocked, mercilessly, by those of us who see through your bullshit.

I wish someone would save Enlightenment liberalism, and get people interested in "ideas", but it sure as hell isn't Markos Zuniga. Talk about banal.

Samurai Sam: "I've heard many a tale about the banality of the Althouse blog..."

Banal or are you just deaf to half of what's being said? You obviously failed to pick up that what I was mocking was the NYT coverage. Because -- as you admit in your first sentence -- you're the kind of reader who arrives with an expectation about what you're going to read, then engages in a reading-like activity, and believes he's found just that. So go back to your blogs that hit you over the head with clear ideology.... until the next time you're pointed over here to see what the pointer will tell you you're supposed to see and you pop over here like a good little boy and see what you were told.

I personally believe quxxo/jacques/reasonater/lurketto/thersites are ALL the same person. For me the source of the bitterness over all these months (years?) seems to be jealousy/envy that this blog is so successful. And the fact that Ann's a prof and he perceives his job as less successful adds fuel to the fire. The politics just gives him endless material to channel his bitterness into.

Clicking through to the full photograph made me think that, although the picture was supposed to illustrate the Kos convention, its true purpose was to take another shot at Mark Warner - like the hideos, deliberately distorted cover photo of Warner from the Times Magazine a few months ago.

Now, why would the Times be engaged in a sub silencio campaign against Warner, huh Hillary?

It really doesn't take that long, and the results provide insight into your behavior or writing skills.

By my count, out of 61 messages,

24 are random spew21 attack Kos, Kossacks, and Leftists7 attack the NYTimes for a crappy article7 attack you for being a smear artist2 attack both the NYTimes and Kos/Kossacks/Leftists

Paraphrasing Ann as she replies to Samarai Sam today, and Scott Lemieux yesterday, my posts are about critiquing the NYTimes and generating outrage. You would have to be awfully dumb to think it was about attacking Kos or saying that the government should spy on people!

But the data in this post alone shows that 21 people made personal attacks on Kossacks, 7 people attacked the NYTimes, and 2 people attacked both.

The blogosphere complains that Ann Althouse never makes her message clear, instead coding her message such that everyone knows what she is really saying, though she says it with a veneer of plausible deniability. This is intellectually dishonest of her. I would hope that lawyers and professors would strive to be as clear and upfront to their students and to the public as possible.

In this case, the data show that contrary to Ann's protestations, her regular commenters understand her message as well as those who complain: this post was not about a critique of the NYTimes, this post was an attack on Kossacks, Leftists, and Democrats.

Ann, why do you think that your posts are so frequently misunderstood? Are all of your readers and favorite commenters that wrong about you? Or is the blogosphere picking up something that you are not? Or are you just intellectually dishonest, a smear artist, and a crappy professor?

Say something funny! "Those stupid leftists, they're fat, they don't have a tan, and they're mean turds, too"--I dunno; it just lacks something, maybe, hmmm, wit? You want to laugh? Go read some Ann Coulter. Those 9/11 widows are a laugh riot! It was so funny how their husbands burned to death and now they want to complain even though it made them millionaires. Those guys were probably going to divorce those skanks anyway.

Mary: My point about the photo is that the NYT chose that one to illustrate the piece. The post is (mostly) written sarcastically from the point of view of the Times deciding to slam the bloggers. I don't know why that's so hard to see. It's not really too subtle.

The word "swing" next to the woman's face is a choice by the photographer to frame the photo that way. It's not me going there and picking people to mock. I'm describing at the photo the NYT chose.

Admittedly, if I went there with my camera, I'd frame shots for humorousl effect. But this photo doesn't represent what I'd frame. I'm pointing out what they framed. Why is that so damned hard to perceive!

I was amused by the way the photo coincided with my well-known distaste for shorts.

Yes, but no. (Applied to grad school there, admitted, went to Berkeley instead, a mistake on my part but with two wonderful little absolutely redeaming side effects).

Not really. We discussed string theory in courses as the next big theory that none of the profs really understood yet. Though 20 years later, I notice the layman's articles are exactly identical.

Played in the chatrooms? Like this one? Of course! (Played in the muds or on irc, not really.)

Had an email address since 1978? Yeah. Used the net before there was a TCP? I have to fess up to that too.

There's only one of me, though about a month or so ago, I enjoyed playing with blogger's ability to change names to use non Western character sets, but behind that the blogger true name always pointed to quxxo and quxxo.blogspot.com.

It's fun to see that Ann and Noxie are starting to see me wherever they look and that all sorts of people that disagree with them are being accused of being me.

See Ann, you delete me when I mention this, but people either think I am the best part of your blog, or they think I am your sock puppet (oh, stop that Ann, that tickles, and it's Nucleo who goes in for that action.)

Mary: Withering! Almost as good as Quxxo's zinger. I'll think twice before going after you two again!

The "pass a turd" thing is odd, though. The premise of your jab was that baboon/goat sex turns me on. Fair enough. (And true!) But then the turd thing, as if sexual arousal and turd passing were inextricable. I swing with the best of them, but I have to be honest. I'm a little freaked out by that.

And Quxxo, I'm surprised. I attack you all the time, but you never respond. But a crack about inter-species sex gets your goat? (Heh).

Why aren't we talking about the war? It was certainly what they were talking about at the YearlyKos?

Why are we talking about black socks and shorts at YearlyKos instead of talking about matters of substance?

Why hasn't Ann talked about the war recently? We need more people to talk about all the good things happening in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and to help us prepare for the inevitable new product launch in Iran.

Come on, NoxieGrrl, I know you care enough about our country to discuss such issues.

Johnny Nucleo, the Q, and Mary are having a funny exchange right now. That's humor.

Taunting like self-satisfied 12-year-olds isn't funny. It's like hitting a button; certain threads rev up the conservative echo chamber with nothing more to offer than variations on "aren't liberals dumb?" remarks. There's no wit, no style, just stupid, repetitive, boring crap. If that has you laughing, you need to rent a good comedy and remind yourself of what jokes are, and how funny happens.

Jacques: "I'm an old SOB? You're ten years older than I am. What's that make you?"

It makes me someone who has all along admitted I'm old and therefore easily able to laugh at the absurdity of someone who's old but acting really childish. The older you are, the more ridiculous your behavior is, and we've just learned that you're 45. You're acting about one third your age. I'm in the perfect position to laugh at that.

If you want to send me birthday presents, let me know and I will set up an Amazon wish list. But please just send donations in my name to either the ACLU, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, usocares.org, or draftgore.com.